Cinderella
by Secretly a Duck
Summary: Jack is a cloud-walker, and he believes shoes just get in the way. Elsa works for a rundown shoe store, and she's a mess of doll shoes, flip-flops, sneakers, and high heels. But in the midst of barefoot and footed love, she's still his Cinderella. /One-shot/Jelsa!Modern AU through the years


**i felt like i was turning into a masochist so now i must repay my debt with fluff. idk, this fic is totally jelsa without any conflicts or anything, raw and really lousy writing because inspiration has been drained outta me... so please inspire me to write and update now, haha. anyway, beta'd by EveBelle18! r&r.**

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><p>The first time their eyes lock was when blue meets glassy blue ones across the room.<p>

The other kids didn't seem to notice her tear-stained face since she kept her head hung low, streams of tears flowing quietly down her face as she continued to try solving the Rubik's cube she held gingerly between her short fingers.

Her fingers slipped on the square toy, she regains composure and tries to get a better hold.

Slips again.

That was it. He couldn't bear watching her like this, and began to stroll across the room to her, jumping over kids building lego houses and making sure he dodged others who rolled on their stomachs playing jenga, avoiding attention and any kind of fight that didn't seem righteous at the moment.

"Are you okay?" he asked, crouching down to the mat she sat. His disheveled silver hair seemed to glow in the room , lit by fluorescent lights, his small frame blocking the lights behind him. She looks up.

Her eyes were caked with tears, lips puffy red, face dolled with alabaster skin and her hair is just as light as his, only that it glowed in just the right shade of a platinum blonde's. She tucked her knees to her chest as she gripped at the cube, holding tighter by the minute he noticed. He also took note that she was missing a shoe.

She shook her head savagely and pouted before turning her attention back to her rubik's cube.

Wow. Rude.

He gave her a full minute to toy with the square in her hands before he spoke up again, a little louder this time.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked again, and this time she replies meekly.

"…I lost my shoe," she croaked, and tears are collecting under her impressively long lashes again.

"Your shoe?" his eyebrow rose when he heard the weird girl finally speak. It was highly unlikely for someone to lose their shoe, it almost sounded stupid to the young boy. "How did you lose it?"

The braided girl stopped fiddling with the cube and he could see she's already solved ¾'s of it, looking up to meet his skeptical blues before wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"O-Outside," she mumbled and gestured to the small beat-up window nearest to them, the rain outside completely whipping up a storm as it drenched the earth. "When Ms. Parr's let us play outside, and it suddenly rained I ran in here but lost my shoe while I ran and oh! Mama and Papa would be so mad I—"

"Say no more," he cracked a wide grin, his smile almost blinding her. "But wait, what's your name?"

"E-Elsa," she stammered her name, recovering from her short downfall as she looked up at the boy, now smiling wider than ever.

"They should've called you Cinderella," he puffed his chest out to look bigger, nose in the air before he completely turned on his heel, reaching the wooden door of the nursery before turning to look back at her once more. "And oh yeah, I'm Jack. But you can call me Prince Charming, if you'd like."

Then he slammed the door behind him and he was gone.

Half an hour later, Mrs. Parr's is fuming red as a tomato when she hauled Jack by the arm back into the nursery room and began spatting him a lecture, the whole class poking their heads to see what's happened.

And from the corner of the crowd, Little Elsa nervously poked her head to see Little Jack soaking wet from the rain. Blue eyes meet blue. Jack cracked a grin and held up her lost shoe triumphantly.

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><p>By the age of 11, they were the best of friends.<p>

Elsa crossed the halls with hands and arms occupied with stacks of books, barely seeing where she went. She was the top of her class and had a close shot in being the school's valedictorian this year, so she knew she had to keep racking her brain with geometry and science no matter how much she already knew.

But the sound of an explosion to her left made her jump and drop her books, raining down her feet.

The distant sound of glass breaking, kids screaming, and a grown man yelling (Mr. Aster?) made Elsa freeze on her spot, knees wobbling. She had the strong feeling that she should bolt out of the hall and inform the principal, but before her head could even think of a rational thought…

"Pssst! Elsa!" Jack, the school's biggest troublemaker (and apparently her best friend), poked his head into the hall she stood rooted at, his face weary and flustered as he waved for her in his direction.

"Let me guess," Elsa shook her head as she took quick long strides her short legs allowed her to stretch as she made her way to him as hurriedly as she could. "It was you, wasn't it?"

Jack slapped a hand to his chest, a look like he's been slapped across his face flashed in an instant. "Elsa!" he scolded. "How dare you accuse me of something without knowing what it is!"

She gave him the look.

Tapping on his foot, he shrugged and gave a long sigh, a sign that he's given up.

"Okaaay… maybe I did do it," he admitted under pressure of her accusing face, which made Elsa's face split a smile while his crumbled back to his nervous look. "But hey! It's not my fault, okay? Mr. Aster gave me a D on my paperwork in science, not fair! Serves his butt right getting fried in the laboratory now."

Elsa slapped his barely muscle built chest under his hoodie. "You fried a teacher's butt?! Jack! That's a major offense!"

"Well, I didn't technically fry his butt I just—"

Mr. Aster's screaming sliced through the halls, and it sounded like he was a barbarian out to war as his menacing screams filled the place. The both of them stopped out of fear. Elsa stuck her head to check for Jack.

"JACKSON OVERLAND FROST WHEREVER YOU ARE I WILL FIND YOU AND I'LL BE SURE YOU GET AN F ON YOUR REPORT CARD THIS TIME YOU LITTLE SCOUNDREL YOU—"

"Wow that man has got problems," Jack muttered, almost snickering before Elsa shoved his head back out the hall.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Elsa rolled her eyes. "I think he's developed some kind of brain damage, whenever he'd see you he would always keep a fire extinguisher next to him and an automated speed dial for 911… you sure traumatized him, you know? But whoa, look, he's red as a bull. We better get outta here before he…"

Mr. Aster started yelling again.

It was getting riskier and riskier staying in the hall by the minute.

Without another word, Jack made a grab for Elsa thin wrists and jerked her to a run to the opposite direction.

"Wait, Jack my books and—" one of her small doll shoes slipped from her small feet that he dragged around. "My shoes Jack, my shoes!"

"I'll buy you another one! But for now, we gotta get out of here!" he said between uneven breaths, hands tightening around her creamy skin as he picked up the pace.

Elsa didn't say another word, but instead, her eyes fell to where he locked his hands with hers, and felt an unfamiliar warmth spread from her wrists to her head and to the tip of her fingers. Struggling to keep up, she ducked her head so that he wouldn't see the blush coating her cheeks as they ran far, far away from where Mr. Aster still stood screaming.

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><p>15. 15 and stupid, that's what Elsa calls him.<p>

"Oh my gosh!" Jack laughed harder by the minute and Elsa wished the coke would burst out of his nose if he dared laugh at her again. It was Sunday night, movie night for the both of them, and between watching a Disney movie and eating pizza Jack has just come up with the craziest idea Elsa wanted to punch him for for even thinking of something as stupid as—"Cinder-_Elsa_."

She rolled her eyes so much she swore her irises went up her head and he laughed again.

"Cinder-Elsa! This has got to be the funniest thing in the history of humanity!" then he guffawed, clutching onto his stomach that twisted with knots of funny bones with tears damping his eyes. He kind of looked like a worm struggling on wet ground or a fish flailing on dry ground, Elsa would've snorted if her burning hate for his idea wasn't so stupid. "Cinder-Elsa! Cinder-Elsa!" he began mimicking the little mice that helped Cinderella in the movie, and she wanted to slap her hand on her forehead so badly by the minute.

"Yeah," Elsa shrugged, stuffing her face with pizza as she wore the hardest stoic face she could muster at the moment with eyes trained back on the TV. "Ha-ha. So funny Jack. I can see, really. I'm laughing."

Ignorance was bliss, sure.

Jack kept laughing for the next five minutes before he collected himself, feeling sated as he sat up next to Elsa on the couch again. But when he looked at her and she looked right back, he burst out with the loudest roar of laughter, all over again.

Thankfully, the doorbell rang and Elsa got up to answer it as she tried her best to ignore Jack's annoying laugh.

But as she got up, his laughs died along the way. Thank goodness. Before she could disappear down the hall, she abruptly stops, eyes searching the floor.

"Wait, have you seen my flip-flops?" she asked as innocently as possible, and right there, he burst out laughing again.

She chucks her other slipper at him and it hits him square in the face.

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><p>She's 16 and she doesn't have time for her teen hormones to kick in or constant flirting sessions.<p>

This time around, she works for the rundown shoe store across their street that sells shoes that had rat holes and was always missing the other pair. She's already adapted to the strong smell of rubber that rubbed even on the peeling walls of the store (still her nose itched to the miasma), and the long boring hours of her shift every single day.

The only fascinating part of everyday was Jack.

A lot has changed through their years now, the build of their bodies, their likes and dislikes, who they once were and who they were now, and the inexplicable truth of their growing feelings. Just before Elsa could space out about how their lives were going swimmingly together, the bell sounded the alert that he's arrived.

"Hey, Elsa," Jack waved as he strode towards her, one hand shoved in his jacket as his barefoot feet crossed over some missing tile floors of the shop. "Still No Customer Mondays?"

"Glad you noticed, Sherlock," she managed a smile just as he leaned over the counter on his elbows to chuckle.

"Say, why don't you get a new pair of shoes?" Jack asked, casually peeking over the counter to check on her worn down feet. "You've been missing them a lot and I swear half of the missing pairs around here are yours."

Elsa stuck her tongue out at him. But sure, he was right. Elsa didn't have the best luck when it came to taking good care with her shoes and slippers. Their winter husky, Marshmallow, bit off her favorite sneakers into a chewing toy, her favorite pair slipped off from her tiny feet and into the trash when Anna overdid cleaning her room when she gave her a quick visit last week and just last summer her Crocs got carried away with the waves when the tide reached it over the hot sand (which she didn't regret at all in all honesty). And now, she just came in terms to use her sister's doll shoes to work today instead.

"Because I have the worst luck when it comes to keeping shoes," she gave an exaggerated sigh, slumping over the counter next to him, elbows touching. "I swear my Maisies last month were my favorite, but Anna just had to clean her room."

Jack chuckled, his hand now dangerously creeping closer to hers. "So you blame it on your clumsy little sister?"

"Yes, I do."

"Maybe you really just got it bad with shoes. Look at me, barefooted man free from bounds of those evil snake skinned products!" he waved a fist in the air for dramatic emphasis, she smiled.

"Nah, I don't want to walk the earth without shoes. Have you seen what happened to Hiccup? He stepped on a jagged edge of his dad's broken beer bottle. Wasn't pretty," she shuddered with the reminder. "I'd rather walk around with two different pairs of shoes, thank you very much."

Jack nodded slowly in agreement with her statement, eyes still watching her feet as she shifted her weight on one foot to another, a silly habit she grew unaware of whenever they talked. Suddenly, it hit him.

"I know exactly what I'm getting you for your birthday," he said and flashed his million-dollar smile that blinded her even since they were kids. She blushed.

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><p>17 and going to prom was everything.<p>

Music blared from the massive speakers, lights dancing along with the bodies that swayed on center stage, the couches a love fest for the other teens, and the food was simply divine.

But that was nothing to the two teens in the middle of the huddled crowd.

His strong hands fit perfectly on her slim waist, her arms wrapped around his neck, breaths exchanged, a comforting warmth permeating through their bodies as they slow danced to the music, clutching each other dearly for dear life.

There is something heavy that lifts from Jack's chest, and he makes her see that she is all that he wanted from the beginning. Elsa is buoyant on her feet and she lets him take her where the music sways, and for once she is unfazed and unafraid. Like a bird of freedom seeing daylight for the first time.

And tonight, their hearts sent firecrackers through their chest and everything is perfection.

Elsa looked breathtaking, her porcelain face was painted with the lightest make-up, her lips prim and thin lined with red, lashes long and curved, magenta eye shadowing complementing her platinum blonde hair that seemed to glow under the dim lights. Her dress hugged her in all the right places, and he could see she is a true lady.

Meanwhile, Jack sported a tight tux that made him look like a true man. His disheveled hair was swished to the back of his hair, and he was just as handsome as the next man on the dance floor (more handsome actually) and his strong hands guided her to where the music took them away.

And once all in the room was settled, he kissed her.

She didn't have to stand on her tiptoes or strain her neck up to catch his lips, she was wearing the glass shoes he brought her last autumn. And this time, she doesn't lose it or breaks it or slips from her thin feet, this time she preserves it along with his love. The more that made her smile into the kiss.

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><p>Jack found Elsa hunched over the cool marble steps leading to the local library. Her elbows on her knees, face ducked behind her thin arms, one missing shoe, tears streaming down her face mixing with her own sweat and moist rain.<p>

He struggled to catch his breath after his sprint across town, looking for her in every nook and cranny he encountered once he learned that she had a little fight with her sister, Anna, and he immediately knew the blow of their argument would send her running off somewhere.

Him before her, she sensed his presence, and slowly looked up from her trembling hands, crystalline droplets of rain and tears caught in her lashes, lips glowing.

Steadily, he caught his breath and let a warm smile inch over his lips, holding up her other shoe she lost a few blocks away.

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><p>They stood in the place they never thought would be.<p>

Magic resounded in the air, eyes moist, everything enveloped in white like a blanket of snow on winter's day.

They stood there, face to face, happiness protruding from every bit of them.

Jack felt alive even if his suit strangled him in the neck, but the slight suffocation was tolerable. But he was blaming Elsa, for looking so perfect on their wedding day that he simply couldn't get enough of her and it made the breath squeeze out from his lungs. Elsa's dress made her look like an angel with the most gregarious wings, dress long with woven snowflakes, pure just like her.

Vows exchanged, words from the priest, and finally, he could kiss her.

Jack held up his hand to her cheek to steady her, bumping his head with hers before breathing in her intoxicating scent, and then—

"I lost my shoe," Elsa mumbled before their lips even touched. He blinked. "Down the aisle…"

He laughed, and it drives the tension away that uncountable eyes were watching them now as they anticipated their kiss, and her silliness makes him pull her closer to him.

Then he kissed her, bursting supernovas behind their eyelids and nerves singing with joy. They heard the cheers and booms of clap from the people they invited in their list, but they didn't care.

"We'll find it," he mumbled into the kiss, not giving her the slightest moment to pull away and breathe. "We'll find it, we will. Like how I'll always find you, my Cinderella."

Then he kissed her again. Over and over and over.

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><p><strong>pffft. sucks, but feedback is most appreciated. hopefully i'll get back to writing better ones soon. haha. <strong>

**til' next time!**


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